how do i get my alpine to DRY UP!!

[MandersGoaters]

this girl just isn't having it! she refuses to dry up, i have tried everything, she is bred now so she has to dry up, is there any medication i can give her to make her dry up...anything...it's not good for her to still be milking and trying to grow a baby..is it? help!

[Gailann Schrader]

Send her milk THIS WAY!!! I'm out of GM to make soap!!!

[Spinner]

You can milk her until the last few weeks. She needs to dry up so she'll make colostrum for the new kids.

[BlueHeronFarm]

Yep -- you can milk her for the first 100 days - no problem.

But if you want her dry, just stop milking. Her body will figure it out. If she's extremely tight and full, only take enough to give her relief -- not a full milking.

[MandersGoaters]

I have been trying to milk a little out when she lookas horrible! it's funny when i go over to check the goats 2x a day i sit and watch them, cause they are so funny when they're in heat, and my alpine comes over and and stands with her bag right infront of me, it's so big she walks bo legged! she's like a dog that wants petted but she wants milked soooo bad!!! i called the vet and he said to try hydro therapy...cold water for 10 minutes on the bag twice a day...yeah she'll go for that one! either way she'll still fell bad! she'll give a gallon and a half twice a day, i have never weighed it, but it's a lot...she keeps two families in more than enough milk! next spring i'll have 3 milk goats and 2 jersey heffers to milk out...i'll be very busy...guess i'll have to get some pigs..there is no way i can use that much milk!!! and isn't making soap and cheese hard to do? i guess i'll have to read up on that! it would seem to be more of a fuss to make cheese and stuff than to feed some butcher pigs LOL

[fcnubian]

Well when I dry does up. I remove their grain. All they get is hay. Then I milk once a day for a week and go to no milking and I just watch them and check their udders daily for any signs of mastitis.